The Hobbit’s Holiday comes to an end.

Hi Everyone, welcome to the final portion of our read-along of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. We hope you enjoyed your journey to Middle Earth, and hope you’ll join us for our upcoming Lord of the Rings trilogy read along. If you haven’t already signed up, just post a comment in this post or over here at Geeky Daddy, or you can tweet me or Geeky Daddy and we can add you that way.

This week’s discussion questions were provided by Clint at Geeky Daddy who I’m so thankful for this week. In the middle of my e-mail meltdown, Clint took the helm and rescued the day and has already started organizing the chapter breakdown discussions for the trilogy. Go Clint!!

and three. . . two . . . one. . . discuss!

What were your thoughts of how Smaug was killed? If you did not like it whatdo you think Tolkien could have done differently?Were you satisfied with the ending of *The Hobbit*?What or who was your favorite part of the book?What were your thoughts when Bilbo gave Bard the Arkenstone of Thrain?After reading the book will you be going to see The Hobbit in theaters?

(BTW, the photos in this post are from The Annotated Hobbit, edited by Douglas Anderson, who my husband and I were lucky enough to meet last weekend. Mr. Anderson was a ball to talk to, and he autographed the book for us. If you’re a Tolkien fan, I highly recommend both The Annotated Hobbit, and Anderson’s “Tales before Tolkien”. Good stuff.)

(Leave a link to your discussion in the comments, and I’ll edit the post to include your link.)

Read my answers and see the discussion after the jump!

What were your thoughts of how Smaug was killed? If you did not like it whatdo you think Tolkien could have done differently?

I liked it just fine. There was some nice foreshadowing while Bilbo was talking to Smaug, and Smaug shows him his belly with the bare patch, so I figured that would be his weakness. That’s some marksman, who can hit a moving target that is breathing fire! And the little bird, is he a friend of Gandalf’s?

Were you satisfied with the ending of *The Hobbit*?

my only complaint is that I felt it was rushed. The beginning and the middle of the book are full of dialog and detail and all sorts of world building bits and pieces. The end felt much more like “this happened, and then this happened, and then suddenly this happened, and then that happened. . and so on”. It was like Tolkien had drunk about 5 turkish coffees while writing the end.

What or who was your favorite part of the book?

Smaug was cool, especially his conversation with Bilbo. I also thought it was funny at the end when Bilbo goes home, and people think he’s dead so they are auctioning off his stuff, and his relatives don’t want to believe he’s a live because they want his house and his furniture!

What were your thoughts when Bilbo gave Bard the Arkenstone of Thrain?

That was some pretty damn brilliant planning on Bilbo’s part. If this is the thing that gets him home the fastest, he’s gonna do it. Sure, he’s travelling with the Dwarves, but I don’t get the impression that he’s on their side. And excuse my french, but once Thorin gets his hands on the treasure under the mountain, he turns into a total dick. it sounds so un-PC, but it’s almost no wonder people don’t like dwarves.

After reading the book will you be going to see The Hobbit in theaters?

For sure! especially now that I know who all these people are. I’m extra curious to see how they do Gollum and Smaug. It’s good that now that I’ve read the book, I’ll be able to see what exactly they changed in the movie.

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4 Responses to "The Hobbit’s Holiday comes to an end."

Woo! One of the things I like about the end of the Hobbit is that it skips the battle, giving the reader no excuse but to look at the most unpleasant parts of war: the stupidity and stubbornness that lead to conflict, and the dying and wounded afterward. No romanticizing the battle itself, it’s barely there.

FTC Stuff

some of the books reviewed here were free ARCs supplied by publishers/authors/other groups. Some of the books here I got from the library. the rest I *gasp!* actually paid for. I'll do my best to let you know what's what.